"The pounding on my door jolts me awake. 'Get up!' a voice booms. 'They caught a jaguar!'
It's 2 a.m. I stumble into my clothes, grab my gear and slip into the full-moon-lit night. Within minutes, I'm in a boat with three biologists blasting up the wide Cuiabá River in southwestern Brazil's vast Pantanal wetlands, the boatman pushing the 115-horsepower engine full throttle. We disembark, climb into a pickup truck and bump through scrubby pastureland.
Half a mile in we see them: two Brazilian biologists and a veterinarian are kneeling in a semicircle, their headlamps spotlighting a tranquilized jaguar. It's a young male, about 4 years old: He's not fully grown and the dagger-like, two-inch canines that protrude from his slack jaw are pearly white and show no signs of wear."
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